Oscar-winning Scottish director Kevin Macdonald is set to helm a documentary on the life of singer Whitney Houston, who was found dead at her home in 2012 at the age of 48.
The as-yet-untitled project, the first to be officially authorised by the singer’s estate since her death, will be introduced to buyers in Cannes by the banner behind “Amy’s” record-breaking UK release, said The Hollywood Reporter.
Houston was known as one of the music industry’s most naturally talented and successful artists, with an estimated 200 million records sold worldwide and the only singer to have enjoyed seven consecutive number 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits.
Proving her crossover appeal, she had an acclaimed starring role in 1992’s “The Bodyguard”, which would win her a Grammy and still remains one of the biggest-selling soundtracks of all time.
But while Houston’s career would influence a generation of female performers, the star also had widely-known personal struggles, including a turbulent 15-year marriage to Bobby Brown and a long-history of drug addiction and abuse, which would culminate in her being found unconscious in a bathtub in the Beverly Hilton Hotel and later pronounced dead at the age of just 48.
The “unvarnished and authentic” story is set to “examine both the highs and lows of her dramatic career.”
Among the figures lined up to be interviewed are Clive Davis, Founder and President of Arista Record and currently Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment.
Davis is universally acknowledged to have helped bring Houston to prominence, having first seen her perform in New York in 1983.
Friends, family and collaborators are also set to tell their side of the story, helping reveal a woman who was “both blessed and cursed with perhaps the greatest natural ability of any pop star in history.”
Never-before-seen footage will chart her whole life from her church’s gospel choir to her tragic death, alongside exclusive demo recordings, rare performances and audio archive.
The filmmaker asserted that he wouldn’t “shy away from the darker parts of Whitney’s life,” including her descent into addiction.
